If you (and they) are using Plex, sign into your myPlex account, and "share" your library from there. The person(s) will receive an email, asking them to login, and provide them with a pin number or link to input into the settings options in Plex on the Roku.

Warning: Your upload speeds will determine their quality, so if you have less than 5Mb/s upload, only one person might receive more than SD quality.

C. Shawn Smith

C. Shawn SmithCommunity Liaison

------------The Cosmos is all that is, and all that was, and ever will be. -- Carl Sagan

Actually MyPlex & Plex are 2 different things.1: Plex is the main program that you run on your computer & you can access from your Roku.2: Myplex is a secondary account that allows you to 'Queue' videos online to your Roku Plex & where you can connect & share to other MyPlex servers.

Actually MyPlex & Plex are 2 different things.1: Plex is the main program that you run on your computer & you can access from your Roku.2: Myplex is a secondary account that allows you to 'Queue' videos online to your Roku Plex & where you can connect & share to other MyPlex servers.

I though PLEX was the name of the Channel which I have added to my Roku 3

Like I mentioned, whatever they are called I have my Roku 3 playing from my server using the something PLEX software on my computer.

I'm at work and don't have my computer or Roku 3 in front of me making it hard to name the programs.

Plex is the channel. Plex Media Server is the program running on the computer. MyPlex is the account that will allow you to share your library with others (http://my.plexapp.com).

Once you have Plex Media Server setup and seeing your library, you connect to it using the Plex channel on Roku. If you want friends and family member to share your library, then you create a myPlex account and share the library through the web interface. Friends and family will then login to their myPlex account, install the Plex channel on the Roku, and then go into Settings (Plex channel) and input the code or pin number (I forget exactly how or what it gives you). They will then see your library and can stream from it.

You may encounter some routing issues (having to do with port numbers), but don't worry about that until you come to it.

C. Shawn Smith

C. Shawn SmithCommunity Liaison

------------The Cosmos is all that is, and all that was, and ever will be. -- Carl Sagan

Is Plex the only way to achieve my goal? Would their be a simpler way like create a channel and when someone adds the channelthey have a selection of videos or pictures? If yes, what easy tools are out their to create a Channel for such?

The description you gave might be a bit much for non computer savoy people. I need something like just adding a channel and their watching video.

Thanks for all the comments. I got the idea how it all works.

Ken

RokuShawnS wrote:

Plex is the channel. Plex Media Server is the program running on the computer. MyPlex is the account that will allow you to share your library with others (http://my.plexapp.com).

Once you have Plex Media Server setup and seeing your library, you connect to it using the Plex channel on Roku. If you want friends and family member to share your library, then you create a myPlex account and share the library through the web interface. Friends and family will then login to their myPlex account, install the Plex channel on the Roku, and then go into Settings (Plex channel) and input the code or pin number (I forget exactly how or what it gives you). They will then see your library and can stream from it.

You may encounter some routing issues (having to do with port numbers), but don't worry about that until you come to it.

I'm not that familiar with Synology yet. I know they also have their own DS video Roku channel, but I don't believe the built-in Video Station on the NAS supports remote player streaming from the Internet, out of the box (without a work-around such as VPN)?

Incidentally I'm also eyeing to get Synology's new DS214play NAS for family members.

Uses the new Intel "Berryville" CE5335 which is a low-cost SOC based on the Evansport platform -- not as fast as an Intel Atom D2700 for general purpose tasks, but on the flip side has hardware transcoding acceleration (and HDMI support, although the latter isn't implemented in the DS214play unlike in the Asustor AS-302T).

All in all relatively cheap ~$350, although you're not gonna get the peak throughput of NASes with higher-end Intel proc, 3+ drive bays (RAID 5), and link aggregation via multiple gigabit Ethernet ports.

Another drawback is that it will supposedly take some time for Plex/FFmpeg to support the Intel CE5300-series hardware transcoding capability (in the meantime, Plex would continue to use the general CPU cores to do the job, which would make the SOC slower than standard Atom).

P.S. There's also the general caveat about runnning Plex Media Server on Linux (NAS):

"Many Plex Channels are unavailable when running PMS on any type of Linux host. This is due to Linux not having support for formats like Flash, Silverlight or Webkit video which many companies have chosen to use to stream their content."

I think you will like the DiskStation. I have had my DS211j for about 3 years now and it runs 24/7 without a glitch. I have 2, 2TB drives running equivalent images.

Most friends that know what their doing log on and download what they need. I just bought a 3TB USB drive to back up the DS211j.

Running video right off the Roku 3's USB port works very well.

Making a Roku Channel isn't a simple task. I tried something called "Instant Channel" which did work and easy but at the end you still need a sitewith your stored data to link to which ended in disappointment for me. I was hoping it would simply let me point it to my ds211j

You probably mean "Instant TV Channel". Assuming that a DS211j supports progressive downloading, Instant TV Channel can stream MP4 videos and grab poster artwork from your DS211j if you have a valid IP address for it. If you provide an RFC1918 address (192.168.X.X, etc) address, then your Roku channel can only work on a player behind the same router at the same location as your DS211j, unless you do some fiddling with port forwarding on your router. If you set up port forwarding on your router, or if you have a public IP address for your DS211j, then your Roku channel is usable anywhere, but will be performance-limited by your Internet connection's upstream bandwidth.

I already have a slingbox Pro. It doesn't have a HDMI input. At the time they sold a addon for HDMI but I never picked it up.I would think the slingbox would need the ability to change the roku channel with the remote IR of the slingbox.Did someone make the plug in for the roku remote available for the slingbox?

Ken

advocate2 wrote:

I watch my Roku on the road all the time, domestic and international.

Get a Sling Box. If you want to output HDMI you will need the the 500. I'm not sure of the inputs on the 350.

The 2XS had a cable that output composite, but with an update it will now only output composite or hdmi, but not both. My older XDS still outputs both HDMI and component.

Get a sling account. Add the Sling ID information in your account.

Keep an admin password for yourself and a watcher ID for anyone else that wants to watch your Roku.

Hook your Sling Box to the Ethernet. Sign into your Sling account and voila, you are watching your Roku remotely.

The disadvantage is that only one person at a time can remotely access the Sling Box.

The advantage is that Netflix, Hulu and perhaps Amazon can't be accessed directly when you are out of the country. By using your Sling Box, there is no problem watching from an international location.

Update, I have the Video Station app running on my Synology DS211j. I also installed the DS Video channel on my roku 3.It works great. Installed the DS Video app on my iphone and provided I have a good WiFi connectionit works good too.

The DS viceo channel should work on a friend or relatives roku box. All they have to do is enter the IP address, user name and passwordand they will have access to my ds211j and watch any video or pictures I have setup.

The only negative is 90% of my videos are AVI format. I have to convert them to MP4 for roku box to view them.

They really should have added AVI format.

I am testing a program called Handbrake for converting AVI to MP4.

I tried PLEX prior but it was a little confusing to me how to get it working. The other negative is you need the computer running as well. The DS video channel for roku seems to be much easier.